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SARAH PALIN:
A CONTEMPORARY WOMAN RHETOR
A Rhetorical Analysis Written for the Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Class
CO 414 Rhetoric of American Women
for
Professor Anne Mattina
Stonehill College
By
ANDREA GAGLIARDI
December 15, 2009
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 2
Abstract:
The 2008 Republican National Convention introduced the United States and the world to
Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK), the newly nominated vice-presidential candidate running with
Senator John McCain. Palin’s speech at the convention was a very effective display of
contemporary women’s rhetoric. She had much to cover in the speech due to her relatively
unknown status in the American political spectrum as well as her running mate’s recently low
poll numbers. Her unique style included the use of humor, “folksiness” and feminine aspects
which grabbed the attention of voters during the 2008 presidential election campaign, taking the
attention away from Senator Barack Obama. This paper will take a detailed look at this rhetoric,
breaking down the historical background and significance of the first national convention speech
made by a woman Republican candidate for vice president.
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 3
Introduction
Sarah Palin (1964-) is an American woman from the state of Alaska. She was the first
female mayor of her city, Wasilla. She then became the first woman governor of the state. She
continued to make history by becoming the first Republican nominee for Vice-President of the
United States of America, causing much excitement at the 2008 Republican National
Convention. Her running mate was Senator John McCain and they were opposed by Senators
Barack Obama and Joe Biden. This paper will be a rhetorical analysis of her speech at the
convention. It will start with a brief biography of her life leading up to the nomination for Vice
President. A background of the occasion for the speech will then be described. Next there will be
a discussion of her rhetorical strategies. As a final point, a conclusion on the effectiveness of the
speech will be determined.
Biography
Sarah Louise Heath was born on February 11, 1964 in Sandpoint, Idaho. At just two
months of age, her family moved to Alaska, the 49th state. After living in various cities, the
family finally settled in Wasilla. Sarah was the third of four Heath children. The family was very
active, participating in all the outdoor activities the state had to offer. (Johnson, 2008). To
discourage use of watching television and encourage spending time outdoors or with the family,
the TV was kept in the garage, where it was freezing. However, Palin did admit to secretly
watching Saturday Night Live, way after her bedtime (Palin, 2009). Little did she know that one
day she would not only be portrayed on the show multiple times, but also be a guest on the show
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 4
herself. Sarah was also a player on her high school women’s basketball team where she met Todd
Palin, a senior transfer who was on the men’s basketball team (Palin, 2009).
After high school, Todd and Sarah went their separate ways but found themselves back
together again in Alaska during breaks from school. They eventually married after she finished
college. Sarah started her education at the University of Hawaii. However, she decided that
Hawaii was not the best environment for her academic goals. She then transferred to the
University of Idaho and earned a bachelor’s of arts in Communications-Journalism in five years.
She says that it took her longer to complete the degree because she paid for education herself and
had to take semesters off in order to work (Palin, 2009). One way in which she earned money for
college was to enter beauty pageants. In her memoir, Palin recalled an interview that took place
as she was competing for the Miss Wasilla Scholarship:
Judge: Geraldine Ferraro recently became the first female vice presidential
candidate representing a major American political party. Do you think a woman
can be vice president?
Palin: Yes I believe a woman could be vice president. I believe a woman could be
president.
Judge: Would you vote for a vice presidential or presidential candidate just
because she was a woman?
Palin: No, I would not vote for someone just because they were a woman. I
would vote for the candidate that reflected my political beliefs and had a strong
character and family values.
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 5
Judge: What do you think are Alaska’s best attributes?
Palin: One of the best attributes of Alaska is its beauty, and everything that the
great Alaska outdoors has to offer, from hunting and fishing to snowmachining/
(sic) in winter. And Alaska has amazing potential in drilling for oil on the North
Slope. But unfortunately some Outsiders/(sic) don’t understand Alaska’s potential
in developing our vast natural resources (Palin, 2009, p. 44).
After viewing a video of this interview more than twenty-five years later, she said that these
questions and answers could either be a strange coincidence or a “Providential signpost pointing
toward my future.” (Palin, 2009, p. 44). She continued to write that she does not believe in
coincidences (Palin, 2009).
In 1996, twelve years after the Miss Wasilla interview, Palin went on to become
the first female mayor of Wasilla. Then in 2002, she was approached by Senator Mike
Murkowski to run as lieutenant governor- his running mate in the race for governor. Palin
biographer, Joe Hilley writes that she wanted to help meet the serious challenges that Alaska
faced, but that her experience seemed small and many people in the state believed that a
woman’s place was in the home (Hilley, 2008). But Palin was not afraid of these challenges and
she did run for lieutenant governor. However, Palin did not win the nomination for lieutenant
governor. After Murkowski was elected, Palin was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas
Conservation Commission. The position gave her much economic and environmental experience,
but it did not increase her reputation as a public speaker. Again, not to be torn down by the
skeptics who did not feel she was qualified, or that she would be too burdened to raise four
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 6
children and run the biggest state in the country, Palin went on to run for the governor of Alaska.
In 2006, she was elected to be the first female governor of Alaska, less then fifty years after
Alaska became a state (Hilley, 2008).
In 2007, Palin was featured in Newsweek to represent women governors. She was only one
of twenty-nine in the history of the country. At this point, no one knew that that she would soon
leave the confines of Alaska and would become part of the national political spectrum.
Newsweek wrote, “While this year’s political buzz has been around Hillary Clinton’s run for the
White House and Nancy Pelosi’s ascension to Speaker of the House, women leaders like Palin, a
Republican and Janet Napilatano (Arizona), a democrat have gained significant power in the
lives of millions of Americans at the state level.” (Breslau, 2007, p. 1). The article continued to
say, “It is no coincidence that two of the nation’s most popular women governors come from
frontier states (Arizona and Alaska are the 48th and 49th state respectively to join the Union)
without established social orders that tend to block women from power.” (Breslau, 2007, p. 5)
Growing up in a frontier state where she ultimately rose to the state’s highest political position,
the first woman to do so, may have given Palin the confidence she needed to say yes, when
Senator John McCain called her at the Alaska State Fair and asked her if she wanted to help him
change history (Palin, 2009).
On August 29, 2008, Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee for President
of the United States announced his pick for a running mate. The announcement was said to be,
“vintage John McCain- daring, unconventional and totally unexpected.” (James, 2008, p.7) Other
scholars have said that McCain’s selection was a “calculated risk, a tactical move designed to
attract the votes of women who may have first been disaffected by Hillary Clinton’s loss of the
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 7
presidential nomination and second by her exclusion from the Obama ticket.” (Kahl and
Edwards, 2009, p 268). For the first time in the history of the Republican Party, and only the
second time in the history of the United States, he picked a woman. Virtually unknown outside
of Alaska, Sarah Palin would become one of the most recognizable names in the country. While
she had strong rhetorical talent, she only spoke to the national media on rare occasions during the
campaign (Edwards, 2009). Her first major appearance would take place on September 3rd at the
Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she accepted the nomination
five days after John McCain’s announcement. Her speech would become iconic, qualifying as a
“Representative American Speech” for the 2007-2008 time period (Boucher, 2008).
Background of the Speech
Palin said that writing her convention speech was a team effort, and the captain of the
team was Matthew Scully, who had previously written speeches for President George W. Bush,
Vice President Dick Cheney and Senator John McCain. While Scully wrote the speech, Palin
said that he was, “very generous about letting me add my own words.” (Palin, 2009, p. 240) In
her memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life , Palin wrote that she practiced for hours with the
teleprompter. She said that she found this “peculiar”, because in the past if she knew her speech,
she used notes, and if she didn’t, she used a teleprompter (Palin, 2009, p. 240). All this practice
turned out to be very beneficial to Palin, because not even halfway through the speech, the
teleprompter broke. Palin wrote, “I knew the speech well enough that I didn’t need it, which was
a good thing, since the machine didn’t sync up for the remainder of my time on stage.” (Palin,
2009, p. 240) In addition to the teleprompter failing, Palin wrote that she was able to stay
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 8
grounded during the speech because the last thing she did before going on stage was change her
son’s diaper (Palin, 2009).
The main purpose of the speech was to rally support for Senator John McCain, but
because she was new to the national field, Palin had to introduce herself to the country as well.
Palin had to address the major issues of the presidential campaign, how John McCain felt about
these issues and also show how she fit into the puzzle. Palin’s main disadvantage during this
speech was that the audience did not know much about her since she was only nominated five
days earlier. However, this could also have been seen as a positive because the audience was
very open minded and supportive of McCain’s non-conventional nomination.
Rhetorical Analysis
There were two sets of audiences for this speech: the people who were inside the
convention center, and the millions of Americans watching at home. Palin had to make sure that
she addressed both of these people. The audience at the convention was very supportive of Palin.
They continually interrupted her speech with applause as well as laughing and chanting. These
were not people that Palin needed to convince to vote for McCain. For this audience, Palin only
needed to introduce herself and her family. She started to introduce her family by talking about
her son Track who is a member of the Army and was about to be deployed to Iraq at the time of
the speech. She was able to connect her experiences as an Army mom to the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, as well as to Senator McCain, who is a former POW and Vietnam Veteran. She
said,
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 9
Our nominee for president is a true profile in courage, and people like that are hard to
come by. He's a man who wore the uniform of his country for 22 years and refused to
break faith with those troops in Iraq who now have brought victory within sight.
(APPLAUSE)
And as the mother of one of those troops, that is exactly the kind of man I want as
commander-in-chief. (Palin, 2008)
After introducing her three daughters (Bristol, Willow and Piper), Palin then brought the
attention to her youngest child. Trig Palin was only a few months old when his mother was
nominated for vice president. He was diagnosed with Down syndrome in-utero. Palin was able to
connect her experience as the mother of a special needs child to her pro-life beliefs as well as her
dedication to the advocacy of special needs. She then introduced her husband, Todd, a native
Alaskan and blue collar worker for the Alaska Oil Company. He is also an avid sportsman. With
her husband working on the oil fields and her former job as part of the Alaska Oil and Gas
Conservation Commission, Palin was able to connect her family even more to the political issues
of contemporary America. At this point, the teleprompter stopped working properly. However,
Palin continued by concluding the family introductions by bringing the attention to her parents
Chuck and Sally Heath who both worked in an elementary school. Palin went on to say that one
of the most important things her parents taught her was, “This is America and every woman can
walk through every door of opportunity.” (Palin, 2008)
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 10
In describing her family and how they relate to her political ideology, Palin is telling the
audience that she is proof of what she is arguing in terms of the American dream. The American
dream is a concept that was first devised by historian James Truslow Adams. Adams wrote that
no theme was more important than what he called,
the American dream of a better richer, happier, life for all our citizens of every rank,
which is the greatest contribution we have made to the thought and welfare of the world.
That dream or hope has been present from the start. Ever since we became an
independent nation, each generation has seen an uprising of ordinary Americans to save
the dream from the forces which appeared to be overwhelming it. (Cullen, 2003, p. 4)
In her speech, Sarah Palin is showing that she is the American dream. She is proof that women
can do anything, including have their name on the presidential ballot, while raising a very
diverse family of five children.
Palin continued the speech by describing herself to the audience as an average hockey
mom. Seeing a group of hockey moms in the audience, Palin inserted an impromptu joke in her
speech (Palin, 2009). She said, “I love those hockey moms. You know they say the difference
between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.” (Palin, 2008) This saying immediately took off
and became associated with Palin. Donny Deutch of CNBC praised her rhetorical style saying,
“She’s a lioness. Look, she gave you the brand icon logo, the pit-bull with lipstick. Who
wouldn’t want a lioness protecting their cubs? She’s funny, she’s real, she’s rock solid, she’s
feisty, she’s smart. If I need to sell Woman in Power to the American public that’s what I’m
putting into my cereal.” (Carlin & Winfrey, 2009, p. 338) However, the association wasn’t
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 11
always positive and Senator Obama said, “You can put lipstick on a pig and it’s still a
pig.” (Campaigns Joust, 2008. p. 1).
In the next section of her speech, Palin told the audience how she progressed from
hockey mom to a member of the PTA to the Mayor of Wasilla to the Governor of Alaska. Telling
the story of her family and her progression allowed her to complete the goals that were necessary
for her to rally support from those attending the convention. This again brings back Adam’s
theme of the American dream and opportunity for all. Palin had been able to continually make
progress through her life, reaching higher and higher rankings in the political spectrum. She was
very successful and seemed to be able to accomplish anything she set her mind to. Her life
wasn’t perfect, she didn’t earn a college degree in four years nor did she win the lieutenant
governor nomination in 1992. She had family difficulties too, with a special needs baby, an
unmarried pregnant teenage daughter, and a son whom she would be worrying about as he began
his deployment. But, she was able to show that she is a real person who can get past these
obstacles and do things that have never been done before. She is the American dream and she
was able to get the crowd to believe that.
However, the television audience was made up of Democrats, Republicans and
Independents. Independents are usually the people who decide elections, because the
Republicans will always vote for the Republicans and the Democrats will always vote for the
Democrats (Perry, 2009). To this audience, Palin needed to prove that John McCain was the
candidate for them and that she was qualified to work alongside him.
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 12
There were many questions about her ability to balance being vice president with her
family of five children including a special needs baby and a pregnant teenage daughter. These
skepticisms show that in our culture, there are still stereotypical beliefs regarding women’s
domestic roles as impediments to active public life (Kahl and Edwards, 2009) This was a major
constraint for Palin that she had to address head on. However, in the past women who were
public figures, “argued that they were in a unique position to care for society because of their
feminine virtues, including the feminine ability to be a mother.” (Atkins-Sayre, 2009, p. 130). In
her article Governor Mom, Wendy Atkins-Sayre writes that this strategy was ultimately criticized
as, “ ‘reductive and essentialist’ and ultimately a step backward for women.” (Atkins-Sayre,
2009, p. 130) Christina Henry de Tessan, an Obama supporter and mother of two said, “You can
juggle a Blackberry and a breast pump in a lot of other jobs but not in the vicepresidency.” (Carlin and Winfrey, 2009, p. 333) Even Republicans had their doubts, such as Anne
Faircloth, the daughter of former Senator Lauch Faircloth of North Carolina. She said, “Being a
governor is one thing and Ms. Palin’s husband, Todd, seems like a supportive spouse, but
running for the second highest office in the land is a very different kettle of fish.” (Carlin and
Winfrey, 2009, p. 333)
Palin counteracted these types of arguments in her speech by relating the variety of
people in her family into political issues such as special needs awareness, support of the armed
forces, environmental concerns and the economy for average working class people. This is a
strategy known as enactment, where the speaker herself is proof of the argument she is making.
This is a type of feminine style that allows the speaker to give proof of the claim she is making
and a way to present evidence vividly. (Mattina, 1994) Palin uses enactment to show that not
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 13
only does she have political beliefs, she is her political ideology. She is part of a working class
family. She is an Army-mom. She is an environmentalist. Her speech addressed these issues head
on and also was very personal in tone, another aspect of feminine rhetorical style (Cambpell,
1989). Some examples of the use of this style are:
To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message for you:
For years, you've sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and
daughters. And I pledge to you that, if we're elected, you will have a friend and advocate
in the White House (Palin, 2008).
And
No one expects us all to agree on everything, but we are expected to govern with
integrity, and goodwill, and clear convictions, and a servant's heart.
And I pledge to all Americans that I will carry myself in this spirit as vice president of the
United States.
(APPLAUSE) This was the spirit that brought me to the governor's office when I took on
the old politics as usual in Juneau, when I stood up to the special interests, and the
lobbyists, and the Big Oil companies, and the good-old boys.
Using terms such as “the good-old boys” gives her rhetorical style a folksy and humorous aspect.
Other examples of such expressions include:
And two decades and five children later, he’s still my guy.
But-- now here’s a little newsflash.
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 14
And I thought we could muddle through without the governor’s personal chef, although I
got to admit that sometimes my kids sure miss her.
And take is from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska: We’ve got lots of both (oil
and gas).
Clearly what the majority leader was driving at is that he can’t stand up to John McCain
and that is only…(applause)…That is only one more reason to take the Maverick out of
the Senate and put him in the White House.
Utilizing such a rhetorical style also allows her to really connect with the audience. Susan
Geary of Virginia said that, “We feel like she talks like we do, like she’s sitting in your
kitchen.” (Copeland, 2008, p. 2) Washington Post Staff Writer, Libby Copeland writes that
Palin’s delivery allows her to leap through the camera and into your living room. Republican
strategist Ron Bonjean agreed with Copeland saying, “The camera will steal your emotions and
make you flat, and what she’s doing is over emphasizing her emotions, over emphasizing her
delivery, in order to get that realness across to the camera.” (Copeland, 2008, p. 2)
Copeland continues to write, “There is a consistency to Palin’s appeal—if you go back
and look at old clips of her, you see many of the same stylistic elements—the warmth and eager
delivery, the voice that drops and rises emphatically, the dropped g’s.” (Copeland, 2008, p. 2)
The article goes on to quote an Anchorage-based pollster who said that, “Her success in her
political career has been based on being able to project this enormously friendly, enormously
appealing physical presence.” (Copeland, 2008, p. 2)
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 15
But as mentioned earlier, defending her experience, qualifications and readiness to take
on the second highest position in the country (as well as charming the audience) was not Palin’s
only objective of the speech. She also had to convince the audience to vote for Senator McCain.
For the first half of her speech, Palin concentrates almost solely on her life and her
accomplishments. From time to time she interjected some information about Senator McCain. An
example of this is:
I came to office promising to control spending, by request if possible, but by veto, if
necessary.
(APPLAUSE)
Senator McCain also -- he promises to use the power of veto in defense of the public
interest. And as a chief executive, I can assure you it works.
(APPLAUSE)
Our state budget is under control. We have a surplus. And I have protected the taxpayers
by vetoing wasteful spending, nearly $500 million in vetoes. (Palin, 2008)
As the speech continued, Palin then took on the task of specifically addressing the
opposing presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama. She spent some time talking about him
when she was about one-third through her speech, but then switched back to talking about herself
again. Using this style of constantly switching the gears of the speech was likely designed to
keep the audience’s attention. If she only talked about herself, they would get bored, and if she
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 16
only talked about how great McCain was, they would get bored as well. By talking about these
topics as well as addressing the rival candidate, Palin was likely able to keep the attention of the
audience.
She went back to the topic of Senator Obama again at about the two –thirds point. She
spent approximately five minutes deconstructing Obama’s experiences and views, in the hope to
persuade the audience that Obama was not the candidate they wanted in the White House. She
even addressed Obama’s rhetorical skills saying:
This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never
use the word "victory," except when he's talking about his own campaign.
(APPLAUSE)
But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed, when the roar of the crowd fades away, when
the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some
studio lot...
(APPLAUSE)
... when that happens, what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to
accomplish after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? (Palin, 2008)
Palin concluded her speech by talking about Senator John McCain. She was able to
smoothly switch gears from criticizing Obama to praising McCain, by indirectly referencing
Obama’s slogan, “Change We Can Believe In” as well as McCain’s slogan, “Country First”. She
said,
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 17
Here's how I look at the choice Americans face in this election: In politics, there are some
candidates who use change to promote their careers, and then there are those, like John
McCain, who use their careers to promote change. …Our nominee doesn't run with the
Washington herd. He's a man who's there to serve his country and not just his party, a
leader who's not looking for a fight, but sure isn't afraid of one, either. (Palin, 2008)
She then went on to talk about Senator McCain’s military experiences and Senator Obama’s lack
thereof saying, “There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for
you.” (Palin, 2008) Palin wrote that the hardest part of giving this speech was talking about John
McCain’s experience in a POW camp, especially the section about a name named Tom Moe, who
was a prisoner with McCain. She wrote, “During rehearsal, there was one part of the speech I
thought I might not make it through gracefully…so during the live speech, I planned to just
pinch myself, and grit my teeth when I came to that part.” (Palin, 2009, p. 240) She said that as
she got to that part of the speech, her throat tightened but she was able to pause and brace herself
due to a thundering applause (Palin, 2009). When she started the section with the words, “A
fellow-a fellow prisoner of war, a man named Tom Moe of Lancaster Ohio” (Palin 2008), the
applause grew even louder and she noticed a commotion in the front row. A group of people were
pointing to a man while clapping and patting him on the back. He had tears in his eyes, and at
this point, Palin did too. She wrote that she could make out what they were saying: “He’s here!
This is Tom Moe!” (Palin, 2009, p. 244). She blew him a kiss and continued. She writes that at
that point, “I knew it would only be by the grace of God that I would make it through the next
part of our message because words in a speech don’t do our veterans justice.” (Palin, 2009, p.
245) She continues to write,
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 18
Seeing Tom Moe standing there made our message about national greatness so real. This
wasn’t campaign hype. Here was an authentic American hero standing right in front of
me. I’d had no idea he was going to be there. It was an honor to be in his presence. I’m
not sure how the next lines flowed because I was so overwhelmed with American pride
that the rest of the speech was a blur. (Palin, 2009, p. 245)
This reflection portrays how real and genuine Sarah Palin considers herself. She truly believed in
what she was telling the crowd that night.
She wrapped up her speech saying,
If character is the measure in this election, and hope the theme, and change the goal we
share, then I ask you to join our cause. Join our cause and help America elect a great man
as the next president of the United States. (Palin, 2008)
By ending the speech with the focus on McCain, Palin reminded the audience why they
were listening to her in the first place. The audience is listening to this speech by Palin, because
she was chosen to be the running mate of John McCain. In the end, it would be McCain’s name
on the top of the ballot with Palin’s name underneath. Her ultimate purpose in this speech was to
convince the voters that John McCain was the candidate for them.
Conclusion
There are many ways in which the effectiveness of Palin’s speech can be determined
including the reactions from the audience, journalists and political experts, as well as poll results.
The audience was extremely active through her speech. Based on a transcript provided by The
New York Times, during her speech which lasted 36 minutes and 31 seconds, the audience broke
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 19
into applause 65 times. There are also instances where Palin had to stop due to audience laughter
or chanting phrases such as “USA! USA! USA!” and “Drill, baby drill! Drill, baby drill!” Due to
this reaction, it can be determined that the audience in the convention center found her speech to
be very effective.
But as discussed in the rhetorical analysis section of this paper, Palin also needed to
speak to the video camera in order to rally the audience at home. The effect on this audience can
be determined through poll numbers. On September 8, 2009, Gallup, a company that performs
public opinion polls headlined, “Republican Enthusiasm Jumps After Convention: McCain edges
ahead: Palin Speech may be factor”. (Newport, 2008, p. 1) The Gallup poll found that:
The presidential race was dead even at 45% to 45% among registered voters in Gallup
tracking conducted prior to the Democratic convention. Then, by the USA Today/Gallup
Poll conducted in the first few days after the Democratic convention (and also after
McCain had made his announcement of Sarah Palin as his running mate), Obama had
moved ahead by a 47% to 43% margin. (In Gallup Poll Daily tracking extending into the
beginning of last week, Obama reached a point where he had 50% of the vote and an
eight percentage point lead.) Obama's lead has now disappeared totally, and McCain sits
on a 4-point advantage among registered voters in the Friday through Sunday poll. That's
the largest advantage for McCain in either USA Today/Gallup Polls or Gallup Poll Daily
tracking since May. (Newport, 2008, p. 2)
The poll also found that more Republicans had greater enthusiasm about the election now than
they had before the convention. Enthusiasm jumped from 42% one week before the Republican
National Convention ( but after the Democratic National Convention), to 60% after the
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 20
Republican National Convention. Of course, Palin’s speech cannot be seen as the only factor in
the Republican rise in polls, but it was certainly an aspect that needs to be taken into high
account. To further study the effectiveness of Palin’s speech, Gallup also conducted a poll in
which participants were asked to rate the speech given five choices: excellent, good, just OK,
poor and terrible. The results are as follows: 42% said that her speech was excellent; 18% said
that her speech was good; 14% said that it was just OK; 7% said it was poor; and 7% said it was
terrible. (Newport, 2008, p. 5) With sixty percent of those polled saying that her speech was in
the higher two of the five categories, it can be held that the effectiveness was high. These polls
numbers could have been even higher if political bias was taken into account and the speech was
judged solely on its rhetorical value.
Newscasters also had a lot to say about Palin’s speech at the Republican National
Convention. Both Chris Wallace of FOX News and Wolf Blitzer of CNN said, “A star is
born.” (James, 2008, p. 26) Blitzer also said, “It wasn’t just a home run, it may have been a grand
slam.” (James, 2008, p. 27) Political experts pointed out that this was not the first time that a
national convention brought light to a new and rising star. Barack Obama was thrust into the
spotlight for the first time as a speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. However, it
was also pointed out that, “while the speech was a homerun, it was still the first inning.” (James,
2008, p. 27)
Indeed Palin’s speech could be considered a homerun in the first inning of a marathon
baseball game. In the end, the Obama-Biden campaign would be able to take back the lead that
the McCain-Palin campaign gained from the convention. However, despite the fact that McCainPalin won the convention battle, but not the election war, the success of her speech at the
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 21
convention cannot be undermined. The polls as well as the audience, political expert and
journalistic reactions prove that this was a very effective attempt of political rhetoric.
Sarah Palin: A Contemporary Woman Rhetor, 22
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Gender and Political Communication in America (pp. 129-148). Lanham, MD: The
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
Boucher, Brian (Ed.) (2008). Representative American Speeches 2007-2008. New York: H.
Wilson Inc.
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